While shopping for housewares on etsy the other day I ran across Alice’s kiln work shop. Alice got her start as a glass artist experimenting with small torchwork beads and marbles. She eventually yearned to move on to bigger and better pieces, so she bought a kiln and taught herself the rest!
First she cuts appropriately sized pieces of glass for the base and decorative elements of the piece. She stacks them and fires them in the kiln to fuse them together. A single piece may be fired several times as design elements are layered on. When the flat blank is complete, the piece is returned to the kiln for shaping. This time the piece is placed across a form. As the temperature rises, the glass slowly slumps to take the shape of the mold.
Of what inspires her, she says, “I think I just enjoy being around glass. It feels good to the hand; it’s cold & smooth sometimes—rough other times; it’s a solid and a fluid . . . . There are so many techniques to learn and styles to dabble in that I find that just playing around with the glass tends to yield more fun projects than I could ever complete.” Keep playing, Alice, your work is beautiful!
622 press | LETTERPRESS GOODS MADE BY HAND 